How on earth is The Nanny still popular in reruns?

[Hawkee]

I cannot figure out why reruns of The Nanny continue to be popular today and I seem to think that it has a huge following than any other sitcom. Because I noticed that CoziTV plays reruns of The Nanny a lot at midnight and they should put another sitcom in it's place. I started liking The Nanny when I first read about it but find the character Fran Fine very annoying with her voice. Is there a high market for reruns of The Nanny?
Bestie

[DadTheKing]

Hi, Bestie! I never knew why the Nanny was so popular. Her voice was awful, the kids were ugly and the only one with talent was the Butler. If you figure it out let me know.
DTK

[JL82]

Originally Posted by DadTheKing

Hi, Bestie! I never knew why the Nanny was so popular. Her voice was awful, the kids were ugly and the only one with talent was the Butler. If you figure it out let me know.
DTK

I am kind of glad that Fran was able to be successful with her voice...a good thing for people who have speech impediments of some kind or whose voices aren't so normal or aren't sexy by the usual Hollywood criteria. I don't dislike either Fran (Fine or Drescher) just for the voice. But I agree that as a character, Fran Fine went downhill. (I have devoted whole other posts/threads to this.)

She was fun, bubbly, spunky and a cheering influence on everybody for maybe a season...but she became desperate to get married, insecure, clingy, and incompetent...she even stopped getting along well with people (in very early episodes like My Fair Nanny her natural personality was a hit with Max's fellow socialites, despite Max initially trying to make her act more blueblood.) But after that Fran started regularly offending his (and CC's) business associates. She messed up a lot of business things and even tried to pull some cons. And I don't even think she was that great of an influence on the kids. Maggie did nothing but chase boys and convince her dad to let her date more and then get married young; Brighton never stopped with his pranks and blackmail. Fran was back-and-forth about the job, often getting ready to move out (so you wonder how the kids reacted to that emotionally.) And Gracie, who turned out the best (I think), began to have less relationship with Fran and more with CC.

CC, with all her faults, seems competent with business and money and pretty independent financially and able to even direct Max on business matters and ask for things she wants. She is the butt of jokes for her "patheticness" where Max is concerned, but she seems to me much stronger than Fran, in many ways. I don't believe she's serious about Max...it seems like her expressions of interest with him are "moves" in the game she's playing with Niles.

In early episodes Fran is spunky in her dealings with Max...by season 4 she is kind of following him around begging for attention, and CC seems to go after what she wants in a more forceful way.

And Fran and Max... while Niles' and CC's relationship is famous for being "love-hate," you can see what they have in common in personality and what they like/respect about each other beyond looks. And you can see/feel the sexual tension under the insults early on. (I think there are flaws in how their relationship is written, but the attraction / falling in love doesn't come "out of nowhere.") Niles' and CC's insults are not always innocent, and some are really mean, but they're always gratuitous, in the sense that they're never really having an argument about any actual issue. Fran and Max are constantly clashing and disagreeing about real, lifestyle issues and how to raise the kids, and constantly yelling at each other - and have nothing in common. They don't seem to like each other much beyond physical attraction. And that doesn't stop even when they're newlyweds...they spend their early days as a married couple trying to learn to compromise and accommodate each other...it plays as if they had a whirlwind romance and hardly knew each other when they got married, and it makes it look like they're a bad match. (Although the first season went with the "Sound of Music" motif of the free-spirited nanny loosening up and/or cheering up the uptight British dad, when they get married five years later, he is still so uptight that he has to work on it for her.)

[CosmicCharlie]

It’s worth asking why, 21 years after the end of The Nanny, we’re still in her thrall. It’s not just that those who are overwhelmed by the chaos of the internet — which is to say, all of us — see the feel-good sitcoms of the ’90s as sort of a cultural balm, much of it accessible now, ironically enough, on the internet.

https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/the-j...the-nanny.html

[Sterling Holobyte]

I hear ya. I could never stand watching that show because of her voice. It was worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.

[CosmicCharlie]

Oh Ya - another thing "Fran's Legs" - they will always be popular / never go out of style !

[Furienna]

Originally Posted by JL82

I am kind of glad that Fran was able to be successful with her voice...a good thing for people who have speech impediments of some kind or whose voices aren't so normal or aren't sexy by the usual Hollywood criteria. I don't dislike either Fran (Fine or Drescher) just for the voice. But I agree that as a character, Fran Fine went downhill. (I have devoted whole other posts/threads to this.)

She was fun, bubbly, spunky and a cheering influence on everybody for maybe a season...but she became desperate to get married, insecure, clingy, and incompetent...she even stopped getting along well with people (in very early episodes like My Fair Nanny her natural personality was a hit with Max's fellow socialites, despite Max initially trying to make her act more blueblood.) But after that Fran started regularly offending his (and CC's) business associates. She messed up a lot of business things and even tried to pull some cons. And I don't even think she was that great of an influence on the kids. Maggie did nothing but chase boys and convince her dad to let her date more and then get married young; Brighton never stopped with his pranks and blackmail. Fran was back-and-forth about the job, often getting ready to move out (so you wonder how the kids reacted to that emotionally.) And Gracie, who turned out the best (I think), began to have less relationship with Fran and more with CC.

CC, with all her faults, seems competent with business and money and pretty independent financially and able to even direct Max on business matters and ask for things she wants. She is the butt of jokes for her "patheticness" where Max is concerned, but she seems to me much stronger than Fran, in many ways. I don't believe she's serious about Max...it seems like her expressions of interest with him are "moves" in the game she's playing with Niles.

In early episodes Fran is spunky in her dealings with Max...by season 4 she is kind of following him around begging for attention, and CC seems to go after what she wants in a more forceful way.

And Fran and Max... while Niles' and CC's relationship is famous for being "love-hate," you can see what they have in common in personality and what they like/respect about each other beyond looks. And you can see/feel the sexual tension under the insults early on. (I think there are flaws in how their relationship is written, but the attraction / falling in love doesn't come "out of nowhere.") Niles' and CC's insults are not always innocent, and some are really mean, but they're always gratuitous, in the sense that they're never really having an argument about any actual issue. Fran and Max are constantly clashing and disagreeing about real, lifestyle issues and how to raise the kids, and constantly yelling at each other - and have nothing in common. They don't seem to like each other much beyond physical attraction. And that doesn't stop even when they're newlyweds...they spend their early days as a married couple trying to learn to compromise and accommodate each other...it plays as if they had a whirlwind romance and hardly knew each other when they got married, and it makes it look like they're a bad match. (Although the first season went with the "Sound of Music" motif of the free-spirited nanny loosening up and/or cheering up the uptight British dad, when they get married five years later, he is still so uptight that he has to work on it for her.)

Wow...
It is true that Fran became less tough and independent as the seasons went by.
However, that is largely because her mother kept pushing her into marriage.
And I don't agree with the rest of your post.
Maggie seemed to indeed mostly care about boys, but Fran still was there to guide her through her life.
And sure, Brighton seemed to be immature for his age in the later seasons.
But I don't see how Fran is to blame for that.
And I don't remember that Gracie had any relationship with CC either.
None of Maxwell's kids connected with her.

And as for the relationship between Fran and Maxwell...
Yes, they had some obstacles to overcome because of their different backgrounds.
That is not the same thing as them having nothing in common though.
I remember how they connected with each other pretty often on a non-physical level.
Most importantly, they helped each other out with raising his kids.